I woke up in my hotel room with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Seth had insisted on walking me to my room last night—a journey of twenty feet or so. But it had been sweet.

it was still hard to believe how well things were going with him. All the articles I’d read over the years, all the pictures I’d seen… nothing had prepared me for what he was really like. Brilliant, of course. A couple of times over the last few weeks, I’d walked into his office and found him engrossed in some kind of electronic device. Something old he was trying to improve or something new he was working on. The man never ran out of ideas. And he never quit until he found a way.

His playful side was well-documented in the news, as was his playboy side. But in person, he just seemed to always be in a good humor. As if he knew the punch line to a joke that the rest of us hadn’t quite gotten yet.

but his generous side was entirely new to me. The way he was with Nana, how much time he’d spent helping me—I never would’ve guessed that a CEO would spend so much time helping his personal assistant.

He was a good man. A gorgeous man. One who’d spent his time and considerable talents training me these last few weeks.

Wait a minute. Training.

Oh god, today was the day of the big shareholder meeting. Today was my speech.

All the lazy, lustful thoughts fled my mind and I jumped out of bed, struggling briefly with a corner of a sheet wrapped around my foot. I showered quickly, but took some time blow drying my hair, making it as shiny and full-bodied as I could manage. My suit was new—it had a peach jacket and a knee-length straight skirt over a cream-colored blouse. Briefly, I wondered what Seth would think of it.

He knocked on the door when I was looking in the bathroom mirror, trying to decide if I should put my hair up or not. “Are you decent?”

“Yes.”

“Too bad.” Seth entered the room and I turned as he approached. His eyes swept up and down my peach-colored suit. I’d bought it at a store Nana had recommended last week. Not sure how an older woman in a wheelchair new of such a hip, trendy place to shop, but she had.

Seth gave a low whistle. “You’re beautiful.”

I smiled but managed to hold back on refuting his claim. Part of learning to speak up and be a more confident version of myself should probably involve learning how to accept a compliment.

Seth ran his hand up my back and cupped my neck, pulling me close. At the last second, he paused, and asked “Can I kiss you?”

I laughed. “After the things we did yesterday, you’re asking permission for a kiss?”

He grinned. “Some women go nuts when you try to kiss them after they’ve put on their makeup. It’s been almost a year since someone’s slapped me away, I don’t want to break my streak.”

“I think your streak is pretty safe.” I couldn’t imagine anyone pushing Seth away. Ever.

“Do you need anything? Coffee? Breakfast?”

“There will be breakfast stuff at the meet and greet, won’t there?” The meeting didn’t start until ten, but the lounge outside the ballroom would have food and beverages before that.

“Yeah. I’ve got to get down there soon. You can come a bit later if you’d like.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be down in a few.”

“Come find me when you do. There are a couple of people I want to introduce you to—but for the most part, I have some business issues to take care of. The jet touched down half an hour ago. The others should be here soon. So find Brad or Justine and stick with them.”

“I’ll be fine.” I said it firmly, but my stomach was already filling up with butterflies.

“I know you will,” Seth gave me a squeeze. “But don’t make it harder on yourself. Find someone to talk to and stick with them. Remember, our whole strategy is distraction.”

“I know.” But it was a good reminder.

“if at any point in the presentation, just look at me. I’ll be in the front row. Think about all the naughty things I’m going to be doing to you soon. Think about yesterday. Think about your first spanking. Once you get through this, I promise, I’ll give you a lot of new naughty things to think about.”

Mmm, that was a pleasant thought. One that could occupy my mind for a long time.

Smiling, I gave Seth a quick kiss and he headed downstairs.

Fifteen minutes later, I was doing my best to mingle with the crowd. I’d grabbed a bottle of water, but other than that, I wasn’t in the mood for food or drink.

Small talk wasn’t really my thing, but I managed to have a few short conversations.

Then I saw a guy about my age was staring at my chest. For a moment, I thought he was checking me out, but then I remembered I was wearing a name tag. “Ms. White. James Trent from Tech Gazette magazine. Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” I murmured, shaking the hand he offered.

“I was surprised to see an unfamiliar name on the Seth-Tech lineup. Have you been with the company long? And can I ask you a few questions for our readers?”

“Yes. I mean no. Yes and no.”

He laughed. “So I take it you haven’t worked there long enough to know the company policy on talking to the press?”

For a moment, I tried to keep my face neutral, but then I broke into a sheepish smile. “You got me.”

He smiled back, and over his shoulder, I had a momentary flash of Seth moving through the crowd, talking to a million people at once. He waved when he saw me, his hand stilling when he looked from me to the reporter.

“You could be an anonymous source—no one would know if you talked to me,” James was saying.

“No thank you.”

I turned to go, but he held out a card. “Take this in case you change your mind.”

“I won’t,” I said, but I took his business card anyway. It seemed impolite not to.

“And hey, even if you don’t want to spill the beans on the hottest tech company in the nation, maybe we could get together for drinks. Are you busy later tonight?”

He was hitting on me? Seriously? But the gleam in his eye convinced me he was. “Thanks, but I’m busy. I have a date, in fact.” Seth and I hadn’t made explicit plans to meet up later, but I was fairly certain we would.

“I have a date,” I repeated as James walked away. It felt good to say it. I looked around for Seth, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. However, Brad was approaching.

“Almost show time, Erin. You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” And it was true. I’d put in the time. Learned my material. Practiced strategies for keeping focused. Seth was a great teacher, and yeah, I was a little nervous, but not nearly as much as I’d feared I’d be at this point.

“Great. Seth’s been delayed, so I’ll take you back to the staging area behind the ballroom. We’ll get you set up with the lavalier mike and go over a few last minute things.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later, a microphone was clipped to the collar of my jacket, and Brad was listening to a little receiver. “Say the Pledge of Allegiance.”

I did so, my voice coming out clear and strong even though the microphone was not yet hooked up to the sound system in the main room.

“Perfect. Now recite the alphabet backwards.”

I laughed. “Is this a sound check or a sobriety test?”

Brad grinned. “I was going to make you count backwards from a hundred by sevens next.”

“That’s diabolical.”

His smile widened. “Let me have my fun. I’m out twenty grand because of you.”

Brad’s grin was infectious, and I couldn’t help smiling back even though I didn’t know what he meant. “How’d that happen?”

“That bet we made—didn’t Seth tell you about that? It was just for fun, I’m teasing about being mad, of course.”

Suddenly, it felt like the staging room was closing in on me. Like something bad was approaching and it was holding me here, trapped, to face it. “What… what was the bet?”

Brad adjusted a dial on the microphone receiver. “It was after your interview. Justine gave your letter to Seth, and he said he wanted to hire you for the PA position. And, well, no offense, but I commented how that job required public speaking, and Seth said he could get you ready to speak at the meeting today. Quite frankly, Erin, I’m thrilled to be proven wrong. What you’ve done in such a short time is remarkable. You’re a real asset to the company. Though I’d still love to know what you wrote in that letter.”

He looked up from his device to find me staring at him.

“Erin?”

I didn’t answer. The entire training had been about a bet. A game. A challenge. And Seth never could resist a challenge. All this time I thought he was helping me because he cared about me. Because he wanted me to succeed.

But now I knew—I was just a problem for him to solve. To prove to himself that he could do it. Seth had a well-documented history of proving people wrong when they said he couldn’t do something.

That’s what he’d done here. It wasn’t about me at all. It was about him proving Brad wrong. Probably Justine, too. No way she had anything good to say about me after that interview.

A tear slid down one side of my face, but I blinked the others back. I shouldn’t take it personally. This was just how Seth operated. It was my fault for assuming that he was doing this for me. That he might actually care about me. Sure, he’d had fun. That was another well-known Seth trait. He liked women. He liked to have fun.

Well, he had. And I was the idiot who thought it might be something more.

“Erin, look at me.”

Brad was standing in front of me now, concern on his face. “It was just Seth and I being stupid. Acting like the dumb college buds we used to be. That’s how we operate. If someone accidentally dropped a quarter off the roof of Seth-Tech, we’d make a bet and go see which side it landed on. That’s what we do. Honestly, it’s no big deal.”

I nodded, but I couldn’t speak. If I did, I’d probably start crying.

“Crap, I’m sorry. I thought you knew. I thought you’d think it was funny.”

Brad looked genuinely upset, and I knew it wasn’t him who’d hurt me. But it was still hard to get the words out. “It’s o-okay.”

I froze, icy shivers spreading through my limb. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m not m-m-mad.”

Oh god.

Oh my god, no.

I’d just stuttered. Twice. For the first time in nearly ten years.

This couldn’t be happening. Not that. The thing that had made my life miserable for so many years. The thing that had made me miss out on so many things growing up.

“Erin?”

“I can’t.” The words came out clearly, but it didn’t matter. I was done. Done with training. Done with Seth’s insane methods to make me into something I wasn’t.

The bottom line is that when it really mattered, I’d never be able to speak in front of a crowd. Not when the stakes were high. And in a billion-dollar corporation, the stakes were always high.

“I can’t,” I said again, and suddenly, I was tearing the microphone off, nearly ripping my collar in the process.

“Erin, please,” Brad said, but I shoved the lavalier mike at him as I ran past. “Come back, please, let’s talk this over.”

He started after me, but then stopped. We both heard it—Seth was speaking on the main stage in the ballroom. Any minute now, he was going to introduce me. I wished I could be miles away when that happened.

“Tell Seth I’m sorry,” I said. Despite of his recently revealed motives, I regretted leaving him hanging. Being caught off guard in front of an audience was a nightmare in and of itself. “But I just can’t.”

Then I left.